Historical Gossip As Social Engineering To Build Historical Awareness

The main objective of social engineering trough historical gossip is to produce new knowledge, attitude and new historical awareness to Manyak Payed community of Aceh Tamiang Regency. This effort needs to be done to strengthen national integration. This technique is applied with historical gossip media on the local history object that intersects with the national history of Indonesia. The aforementioned Historical Object is the Expansion of Majapahit and a figure named Gajah Mada in Aceh Tamiang. The social engineering strategy is performed in two forms namely Normative-Reeducative and Persuasive Strategy which is presented as Acehnese art performances with programmed scenarios and focus group discussions. The target is the junior high school students in eight different schools in the Manyak Payed Subdistrict, Aceh Tamiang. Social engineering strategies utilize historical gossip of sites and myths related to the tomb which is claimed as the tomb of Gajah Mada in Kemasjidan Village, Manyak Payed Subdistrict, Aceh Tamiang. Using a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods, the results of the research show that there is an increase in historical awareness of the targeted community, with changes in knowledge, attitudes and historical perceptions. Such knowledge, attitudes and perceptions affect the ability of this society to think as historians have analyzed the past.